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The American West through British Eyes, 1865 - 1900: Part 2

Native Americans

By the time British travellers reached the post-Civil War trans-Mississippi
West, Native Americans had been driven onto the defensive. Whole tribes
had been wiped out by diseases carried by Europeans, and where individuals
and bands survived they found it increasingly difficult to feed themselves
as the newcomers not only killed the buffalo, but also interrupted the
gathering of edible plants, often wantonly destroying sources of food.
Armed resistance by Native Americans was sporadic and undermined by
tribal rivalries and the federal government's policies were weakly pursued
and vacillating. While some whites believed that disease and alcoholism
would answer 'the Indian problem', others believed it could only be
solved by civilising the Native Americans, that is, by replacing their
cultures by that of the Anglo-American.

Carrying the Mail

Travelling across the United States, Reverend Samuel Manning made detailed
pen and pencil sketches of scenes from both the present and the recent
past. This one, entitled 'Carrying the United States Mail Across the
Prairies, 1860', depicts one aspect of the often violent and bloody
encounters between the native people and those determined to open up
the West to farmers, cattlemen and miners.

Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande Valley

The title of Dr William Bell's work - New Tracks in North America -
refers to the Kansas Pacific Railway's survey, for which he served as
physician and photographer in 1867. He was particularly struck by the
Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande Valley, whom he described as being
as different from the Plains tribes 'as light from darkness'. These
Indians were early converted to Christianity by the Spanish missionaries
and each pueblo had its own church, built of adobe, and dedicated to
its patron saint. Yet, Bell admits: 'I never, in my residence in their
valley, saw a Pueblo Indian laugh; I do not remember even a smile…I
looked on them with pity, and wondered what they thought of this new
state of things, and how they liked the intruders whose presence they
bore so meekly.'

Native Americans in Oregon

This sketch depicts the Chief of the Alcea Indians between his two
wives and his son. The Alceas were one of nineteen tribes who were forced
onto reservations in Oregon during the 1860s and 1870s. Visiting this
state in 1877, Wallis Nash saw little to condemn in this arrangement
and argued that: 'One hears too much of the fraud and violence said
to be practised against the red men by our American cousins.' He believed
that the inhabitants of the reservations were provided with plenty of
the finest land in the area, schools, medical help and advice, and 'instructions
in the necessary arts of house-building, farming, stock-raising, clothing
and many comforts…What more could the incoming white man do for
them?'

Corruption and Mismanagement of the Indian Bureau

Sir Arthur Pendarves Vivian, an M.P. and colonel in the Welsh infantry,
argued that members of the U.S. Congress meant to be just and fair in
their dealings with the Native people, but '. their intentions have
been thwarted by the slackness and corruption of the Indian Department
or Bureau...I have been told that goods sent as free gifts by the Government
are often sold by the officials to the Indians actually before they
have been unloaded from the waggon in which they have been brought to
the post, and that a single blanket is not unfrequently cut in half
and sold as two.' In addition, 'a great deal of the money voted to ameliorate
their conquered condition feathers the nest of the officials and subordinates.
No wonder then that they cease to believe in the white man's promises.'

Sitting Bull

Meeting Sitting Bull on 5 September 1883, Lord Russell of Killowen,
(Lord Chief Justice of England), was clearly impressed by the
Sioux Chief, yet in his diary he describes him as 'an old ruffian'.
However, by the following day he had obviously revised his opinion,
for he wrote: 'I wish to begin today's note by a word of apology
to Sitting Bull. I am told by well-informed Americans that S.B.
is not the ruffian I have called him, and that the better opinion
now is that he was not guilty of any unwarlike or treacherous
conduct in relation to the defeat of General Custer's force, which
was fairly met by S.B. in the open, but met by a vastly superior
force to that of the American General.'